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Saturday, November 28, 2009

I had some brilliant inspiration from the pesto and mayo I saw sitting near each other in my fridge. I wanted to make a wrap with pesto mayo, and before you know it I dug out all the ingredients to make a great Smoked Salmon & Roasted Red Pepper Wrap. It's a fast and yummy, since the pesto mayo balances the smokey but sweet red peppers. In addition, the red peppers adds a nice complimentary sweet flavor to the salty, smoked salmon. To round of the lunch (and make the boys eat more veggies) I added a Tomato, Onion & Feta salad.

Verdict & Lesson's Learned:
:) Both boys said it was ok. They enjoyed the flavor experience.

:| Both boys sheepishly noticed that it wasn't really cooking -- more like throw together ;)

:( The feta cheese already is seasoned with salt, so pre-mixing the tomato and feta resulted in a lot of tomato juice extracted. Best to bring in separate containers.

:( Similarly, the spring mix wilted over time when I pre-wrapped the sandwiches prior to work. The lettuce lost its crunch and took away from my fresh wrap experience.

:( A bust on my budgeting, but there is probably ways to trim the ingredients justify the cost of the more luxurious, but oh so tasty ingredients.

If I had it my way, I would not try to make this as a packed lunch again. I have to find a way to tweak how this can be brought in, or save it was a luncheon item at my house. The wraps would have tasted exponentially better if rolled on the spot and eaten immediately. Similarly with the salad, it was not a good idea to pre-toss the tomato feta salad without dressing, because the feta cheese had enough salt to make it a very watery experience -- making the olive oil dressing almost unnecessary.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

One of the reasons I was so easily convinced to go to "Stamping Around" with Belinda was because I signed up to do this card craft swap with Belinda and two other girls. Seeing that I know nothing about paper and crafts -- I figured it'd be a good learning experience. I'll have to post those projects later with some of my fun learning experiences.

Anyway, I digress. The card craft swap is actually a neat idea, since we are all spread across the continental US. A fun way to stay in touch with old friends and new friends, and make new friends.

So the deal is each month one of the girls creates four identical kits and sends them out. We each make something out of the stuff in our kit and then post (ideally) on the same day. Most of you guys know that I'm not (yet) a paper crafter, and since the girls were so nice to "loosen" the card craft swap to a craft swap, I decided why not! It's a great way to learn something about making cards (without buying all the crazy hardware) and keep myself accountable on the crafting.

I mentioned earlier that we would all post "ideally" on the same day. This first project post date was November 9 and, well, we know what today's date is...To my defense, it's all because of the traveling and working.

So here is a breakdown of Project Craftiness with the Swapping Sisters. Belinda started with Round 1 and sent us a kit with the following ingredients: yummy Cosmo Cricket Paper (Early Bird), a nice long strand of dark blue ribbon, some yellow & green brads, and a punched out star.Stamps: Blast Off (Sweet 'n Sassy)Paper: Beige (Recollections), Early Bird (Cosmo Cricket)Embellishments: Dark Blue Ribbon (?), wooden stars (Michael's), Blue Awning letters (K&Company)

I had planned to convert this blue, fabric journal I had picked up from Border's. There were a few challenging issues with this: hardback, fabric, and for a boy. Here is what I came up with:

I found some chipboard letters to spell out the recipient's name on the journal. I actually had these purchased before the card kit came in. I decided that I wanted to create a fun three-panel with the green Early Bird pattern paper. The other pattern paper were really fun and hot, but too busy for the boldly colored space shuttle to stand out. The space shuttle is from the Blast Off digi set from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.

To keep this project from too much girly, I needed to come up with an idea to incorporate the ribbon and decided to wrap the panels. I like how the dark blue ribbon adds another shade of blue to the green paper -- a nice and simple effect. Last, the whole thing was finished by adding a moon and a few wooden stars.

By the way, all coloring was done with my trusty Prisma markers & pencils--which I have had since 10th grade in high school. At least there is one unexpected high point in paper crafting: going back to using my art mediums is making my mom happy. She always questioned why I needed such expensive pencils...

So now that you have seen my project, hop on the other gal's blogs and see what other fun & creative ideas they have come up with:

Thursday, November 5, 2009

I just wanted to pop in to apologize for not posting. I have been traveling a lot for work lately and been spending many hours in a hotel room in the Great White North. Of course I didn't pack any fun things with me to work on, since I knew I was going to get owned by the late hours of work. So no fun new pictures of my lunch projects or otherwise crafty projects because, well, there isn't much to show & tell right now.

I'm really excited, because it means hanging with one of my favorite chicks and crafting all weekend long...with exceptionally talented girls in the card-making field. I adore all of the stamp companies that are coming and really am looking forward to learning lots.

So, you'll be hearing of my stamping & cropping adventures, as this n00b (newbie) tries to keep up with these very experienced and talented ladies. I feel really intimidated...